Cuomo played dead at a student-led gun protest, hoping that the corruption conviction against the man he once described as his father’s third son wouldn’t kill his chances for re-election.

“We have the finest level of state employees,” the governor said. “This was a total aberration from that.”

As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, the normally confident public orator consulted handwritten notes to publically address the conviction of his former right-hand man.

“There was absolutely no suggestion ever made that I had anything to do with anything,” Cuomo told CBS2’s Kramer. The governor called it “political garbage.”

Cuomo, who said cleaning up Albany corruption was job one when he ran for governor eight years ago, called again for specific ethics reform — a full-time legislature, the same thing he called for after the indictment Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos.

There was immediate push back from Senate Republicans. A spokesman said in part, “”The alternative to the current system is the creation of a body made up of only professional politicians, who have taxpayer-funded salaries at least double what they are now, who never do anything other than politics, and come to Albany and never leave. Taxpayers would be ill served by that so-called ‘reform’.”

Meanwhile, good-government groups say the Percoco case shows the need for a new, independent ethics agency, tighter campaign limits and greater oversight of contracts. The head of Reinvent Albany dismissed Cuomo’s proposal as a “distraction” from what the Percoco case was about.

“The focus and the urgency is around pay to play and campaign contributions and bribes from people seeking to do business with the state of New York,” Executive Director John Kaehny said.

Cuomo was not accused of any wrongdoing. He said the state should prohibit lawmakers from working side jobs that can create conflicts of interest.

Lawmakers have passed only modest ethics changes since 2000. More than 30 lawmakers facing misconduct allegations have left office since then.